


Lies

by Againstme



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 12:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16040672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Againstme/pseuds/Againstme
Summary: Duck has never been good at lying.





	Lies

Duck has never been good at lying.

He first becomes acutely aware of this fact when Jane catches him talking to Minerva for the first time.

The words stumble their way out of his mouth before he has any time to think about what he’s actually saying, “Uh, well my friend from, uh, school - you wouldn’t know her - snuck into my room by the window because, she, uh fuck, she needed to do a project with me for school and, uh, just don’t tell mom, okay?”

Jane just sighs from behind his door and Duck can imagine the look she’d be shooting him if she were actually looking at him. Despite Jane’s obvious disbelief, it’s never brought up again, at least not directly. Duck just pretends he doesn’t notice the confused or worried looks she gives him after meetings with Minerva where Duck got a little frustrated and talked a little too loud.

Duck has never been good at lying.

He’s aware of this as he decides to just shut up and not talk back when his mother asks him in that polite yet obviously frustrated way she does why he’s decided to waste his potential and stay in Kepler rather than go explore the world like his sister has decided to.

The words from his mother leave a bitter taste in his mouth, reminding him a little too much of Minerva’s expectations of him. He can feel Minerva’s gaze on the back of his neck, intense like she always is, though he knows it can’t actually be there - he hasn’t seen her in weeks after all.

However, it’s that feeling that keeps him from trying to come up with an excuse. It’s all too likely that he’ll let it slip that he’s been seeing and talking to a ghost that’s not really a ghost for months now, and that the ghost has doomed him to save the world or die trying.

Duck has never been good at lying.

But sometimes you just have to go for it because the truth is more unbelievable than any lie that could possibly be said.

At least that’s Duck’s line of thinking when he walks into Ned Chicane’s tourist trap holding a rolled up sword of all things.

He’s taped over the thing’s mouth, to make sure it doesn’t talk while he’s trying to explain why he has this strange strange object, but, well, Duck really has no idea how Beacon hears or knows what’s going on or how the sword talks at all, so he’s still terrified the sword will unroll or something in the middle of the conversation just to fuck him over.

Ned’s place is empty except for Ned himself, a small mercy from the heavens as far as Duck is concerned, and Ned seems pretty willing to take it out of Duck’s hands, especially when he finds out Duck doesn’t actually want any money for it.

Still, the question Duck dreaded the most still comes, “So, Duck, where did you find this thing?”

Immediately, all the excuses and lies he’d come up with beforehand, stuff that certainly wasn’t perfect, but would definitely have been accepted by someone as shady as Ned, leaves Duck’s mind; leaving it totally blank.

A second of awkward silence passes, and then another, and then Duck starts speaking without really understanding a word of what he’s saying, “Well, um, I found it in my mother’s attic, and, well she doesn’t need it, so I took it and I was going to use it for, uh, for larping? With that guy - shit, what’s his name again? I can’t remember - that guy who’s training to become a deputy right now, but, uh, it didn’t work out because, well, the sword’s all rolled up and weird and also real metal, and it really just didn’t work out with me and him, conflicting schedules and sheriffs don’t really like us park rangers, it’s sort of a rivalry thing we’ve got going on and I don’t know what to do with it now.”

Ned looks down at the sword he’s placed on the counter and then up at Duck, his lips showing faint traces of a smile, “Well, I’d be happy to take this off your hands. It sure is an oddity.”

Ned and Duck exchange a few more pleasantries before Duck leaves the last piece of Minerva and all the craziness that came with her brief appearance behind somewhere where it’ll never be seen. Somewhere where it’s safe to be forgotten about.

Years pass and, though he never forgets about it entirely, the memory of Minerva and Beacon and being a chosen one slowly fade. The image of Minerva’s spectral form that was once engraved in his mind due to the supernatural nature of it blurs and becomes less clear until he doesn’t really remember anything about her at all.

Duck lets time wash over his memories, letting them fade until they seem more like weird teenage fever dreams triggered by the stress of finishing high school with no prospects or plans waiting for him after.

And Duck almost believes they were just dreams. Almost. There’s something that just doesn’t seem right about him just imagining the entire ordeal.

Duck has never been good at lying.

But that doesn’t really matter.

What would a lonely park ranger in a small town like Kepler have to lie about anyway?

**Author's Note:**

> Posted on tumblr first, @indridcolds. Hope you liked it!


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